The W3C is perceived as the guardian of a public trust. The RAND
proposal and the attempt to sneak it past public scrutiny are a massive
violation of that trust.
That a proposal with consequences as sweeping and far-reaching as RAND
could have been kept secret for so long is ample evidence that something
is very wrong at the W3C.
If the W3C is to continue as a viable entity in maintaining the
standards of the WWW it must not only strongly reject the RAND
proposal, it must also change the way it operates and implement
structural changes to ensure that the concerns of web users are taken
into consideration along with those of private interests.
--
=====================================================================
Greg Smith * * * gsmith@gregsmith.org * * * http://www.gregsmith.org/